For "unfiltered thoughts": "Ghost posts" on Threads only online for one day
For those who have so far found it too risky to post on Threads, Meta wants to help: The new "ghost posts" automatically disappear after 24 hours.
(Image: Meta)
On Meta's short message service Threads, you can now publish posts that are automatically removed from the web after 24 hours. This allows “unfiltered thoughts” to be made public; the responsible parties justify the step. The “ghost posts” are enclosed by a dashed speech bubble, thus visually distinguishing them from normal posts. At the same time, it is not displayed how many times the posts have been liked with a heart; only the author sees this. Replies to such posts land in the respective inbox and are therefore also not public.
Less risk when writing
With “ghost posts,” Meta wants to encourage users on threads to publish thoughts or viewpoints without having to worry beforehand about how perfect they are or whether they should still be public years later. This makes it easier to try something new and write more spontaneously. After 24 hours, the posts are archived and are only visible to the person who created them. In an interview with TechCrunch, Meta explained that the post type is intended to enable more conversations by reducing the risk that responsible parties will later no longer approve of old posts or that they will even cause problems.
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The innovation on Threads is not the first attempt by a social network with an automatic expiration date for posts. As early as the end of 2020, Twitter wanted to take away users' fear of publishing with the so-called “Fleets.” But just a few months later, the tweets that disappeared after 24 hours were withdrawn due to low interest. Meta, on the other hand, has had good experience with disappearing posts on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. On Threads, the new function was eagerly tried out at launch, but whether the interest in it will remain remains to be seen.
(mho)
